Tuesday, 12 January 2016

Dragon Rampant Game 1 Dwarfs vs Orcs

Ever since I bought these rules (well the Lion Rampant ones) earlier in the year I've really liked the look of them. Late last year myself and JustJohn decided to give the system a go.

The system allows for a small amount of unit upgrades which can help differentiate, for example, dwarf warriors with hand weapon and shield (Heavy Foot) to dwarf warriors with 2h weapons (Heavy Foot with Offensive upgrade). You can even easily represent larger models such as ogres (Elite Foot) as 3 model units with 2 'wounds' each or even a dragon (Elite Riders or Greater Warbeast)

For this first game we decided to ignore the movement penalties for terrain, just so we could get stuck in!

Dawn rises over the old temple ruins

Dwarf Elite Foot with leader

Dwarf Scouts

Dwarf Bellicose Foot

Dwarf Heavy Missiles

Dwarf Heavy Foot

Dwarf Heavy Foot

Orc Scouts

Orc Elite Foot with leader

Heavy Foot with Offensive option

Orc Light Missiles

Heavy Foot with Offensive option

The battle lines draw up as the two forces spot each other

The dwarfs advance forward as the Orcs fail activations

The Orcs manage to get themselves organized after bashing a few heads!

The Orc Heavy Foot pushes back the Dwarf Heavy Foot and then gets charged by the Bellicose Foot

They then retreat 3"

and then fail their rally test, retreating another 3"

On the far side of the table the two forces are more cagey

until the Orc heavy foot manages to catch the Dwarf Scouts supping some ale!

Four are killed mid-swig and the other 2 retreat

The Bellicose foot get another charge in with casualties on both sides.

The Orcs fail their morale and rout!

While on the far side the Dwarf Elite Foot charge the Orcs

Taking two casualties they force the Orcs to retreat and a series of bad rolls sees them continue to fall back and eventually rout

The Orc Elite Foot charge the dwarfs at the hedge line

They push them back

and then get to charge again as the dwarfs fluff activations!

The Scouts add their fire into the dwarfs routing them

Both units of Elite foot then get stuck in

The dwarfs push back the orcs

Who then fail their rally test and take another casualty

As the leader staggers back hes pin cushioned by the Dwarf crossbows

The Bellicose foot advance on the archers, taking a casualty but somehow managing not to retreat or get 'hammered'. Things are looking up for the dwarfs who outnumber the Orcs by a wide margin now.

Then disaster strikes! The scouts kill a dwarf bodyguard, battering the remaining leader who then routs in the following turn.

The Bellicose foot have had enough and also rout while the three remaining dwarf units become battered

The Dwarf scouts then promptly rout and the game ends with 2 units a piece left on the table. After calculating the remaining points its a narrow 2 point win for the dwarfs!

For our first game of a system this was great. The entire game took under two hours with minimum need to look at the book. At our age this is a huge plus. The game went smoothly and rules made sense. This is definitely something we will be getting in to more in the future and a good motivator for painting given the small unit sizes!

In our next game we will give cavalry a go. Scouts are definitely annoying when youre all 6" move!

We are going to have a couple of tweaks of the Dragon Rampant system.

No one man units with silly power heroes as this smacks of hero hammer era. Leader and 2 bodyguards minimum for elite foot, unless the leader is a greater demon or on a dragon etc.

I'm really interested in trying DR. The ebb and flow - something that is sorely lacking in most fantasy battle games - appeals a lot, as does the ability to get on with painting figures without micromanaging armament etc.